740.0011 European War 1939/3801: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Weddell)
297. Your 192, June 14, 1 p.m., and 613, November 5, 5 p.m. Please present the following note to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs:
“I did not fail to communicate to my Government the note (here insert date) from your predecessor in explanation of the Spanish action in occupying the Tangier Zone on June 14, 1940, as well as the oral communication which Your Excellency was good enough to make to me on November 5, 1940, concerning the political status of Tangier.
My Government has also received from the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier the text of the following order dated November 3, 1940 issued by Colonel Antonio Yuste, who is described in the order as ‘Chief of the Column of Occupation of the Zone of Tangier’: [Page 790]
‘That (upon) publication of this order, and in accordance with the present circumstances, the Committee of Control, the Legislative Assembly and the Mixed Bureau of Information (mixed Franco-Spanish secret service) shall cease to function. As a result I assume charge of the Tangier Zone as Governor General and as delegate of the High Commissariat of Spain in Morocco.’
While my Government has not adhered to the convention of December 18, 1923, revised on July 25, 192820 regarding the organization of the Statute of the Tangier Zone, it possesses certain treaty rights in Morocco with which, of course, the Spanish Government is acquainted. It was undoubtedly with those treaty rights in mind that Your Excellency and Your Excellency’s predecessor were good enough to acquaint me with the action taken by the Spanish Government in Tangier in June and again in November of this year.
My Government has taken note of the declaration made by Your Excellency’s predecessor that the Spanish occupation of Tangier on June 14, 1940 was undertaken with a view to guaranteeing the neutrality of its jurisdictional waters and the normal functioning of its public services. It is the understanding of my Government that the oral explanations given me by Your Excellency on November 5 and the declarations in the public press of Tangier do not represent in any way a departure from the policy of the Spanish Government with respect to the Tangier Zone as formally communicated in the note of Your Excellency’s predecessor under reference. My Government is confident that no such departure is intended by the Spanish Government.
It is of course to be understood that nothing in this note involves a recognition by the Government of the United States of America of any unilateral act of the Spanish Government affecting the Tangier Zone.”
Please repeat foregoing to Tangier with the request that a copy of the note be made available to the French Resident General in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sultan.
- For text of Agreement Revising the Convention of December 18, 1923, relating to the Organization of the Statute of the Tangier Zone, see League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. lxxxvii, p. 211. For prior reservation of American rights with respect to this revision, see telegram No. 76, March 15, 1928, to the Ambassador in France, Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. iii, p. 371.↩